Beauty vs Beast: Irish Gangs Be Slashin'

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" -- I don't know if its my walk to work in Lower Manhattan every day or what but you'd be surprised (really, because literally nobody says this) at how often Martin Scorsese's 2002 film Gangs of New York comes to my mind. I mean clearly the nieghborhoods look a little bit different but whenever I look off towards the river I think to myself, "Self, a boat could totally shoot a cannon at you right now." So thanks for that, Gangs of New York. One more New York stress I don't need!

Anyway this morning we're thinking green thanks to the approaching St. Patrick's Day holiday, and I figured it was time to turn that anxiety into action -- it's the angry Irish laddy versus the Original New York Nativist Nightmare (pre-dating Donald Trump by a couple centuries)...

PREVIOUSLY It was a real battle of man against machine with last week's Ex Machina edition, but in the end our lady of the whirring silver midsection Ava slinked away with just about 53% if your vote. Said catbaskets:

"Team anti-rape avenger every time. (As opposed to team rapist creator). We shall not get lost in Isaac's dreamy pecs."

Home Theater: What to watch from your bunker.

It's your bi-weekly blend of tasty new releases on DVD/Blu-Ray and the ever shifting entrees from streaming services. I'm totally depressed about the state of the world today as we head to another round of catastrophic primaries tomorrow but let's jump right in.

NEWISH ON DVD/BLURAY

• Alvin & Chipmunks 4 - a sure sign of the apocalypse
• The Big Short - about the financial apocalypse
• Brooklyn - wonderful escape from awfulness of everything
• Carol - masterpiece. hope it survives the fires
• Grease: Live! -nobody will be doing the handjive in hell
• In the Heart of the Sea - we are all Chris Hemsworth, deluding ourselves
• Macbeth -that damn spot will never come out, lady!
• The Peanuts Movie - tfw you're Charlie Brown
• Sisters - the sinkhole is a metaphor
• Victor Frankenstein - again?
• Game of Thrones S5 - everyone dies
• Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt S1 - that bunker is looking smart right about now.

NEW TO STREAMING
• Netflix: Zac Efron in Charlie St Cloud, Tom Hanks in Larry Crowne and Daredevil S2 all on March 18th
• Amazon Prime: The Internet's Boyfriend and also Garrett Hedlund in Mojave (March 22nd) and the visceral gripping '71 (March 27th) about The Troubles starring Jack O'Connell. You should see that. 

LAST CHANCE TO STREAM
You know how we do. We've freeze framed each movie somewhere random after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Beam Shohreh up, Scotty!

Manuel here. Here's one way to pique my interest about a film I was totally indifferent if not outright hostile to. Cast Shohreh Aghdashloo. In case you hadn't heard, the Oscar nominated actress has been added to the upcoming Star Trek sequel, Star Trek Beyond.  If you're wondering, Wait, doesn't that come out later this summer (July 22) and shouldn't they have wrapped production already? you would be correct. The film is adding a character (the High Command of the Federation played by Aghdashloo) in a series of reshoots planned for this week.

This won't be Aghdashloo's first brush with threequel high-octane blockbusters: she played scientist Kavita Rao in the dreadful X-Men: The Last Stand. Can we hope that, pre-production scuffles and last-minute reshoots aside, Star Trek Beyond will at least be a more satisfying trilogy capper than that Bret Ratner misfire?

More importantly, will someone finally listen to us and assemble, Avengers-style, all the actresses doing thankless roles in summer box office hits into an Expendables-like franchise? Think: Glenn Close (Guardians of the Galaxy), Winona Ryder (Star Trek—we'll retcon her [spoiler]), Laura Linney (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows), Patricia Clarkson (The Maze Runner) all band together to... I don't know, fight sexism in the industry with Viola Davis (Suicide Squad) at the helm? I mean, I'd watch that, wouldn't you? In the meantime, we should be happy that Aghdashloo will join the Trek universe and that it means casting directors have her in mind for future roles worthy of her talent and beauty.

Ask Nathaniel

It's that time again. I'll select 8-10 questions to answer in this Wednesday night's Q&A series. So ask away!

What did you see this weekend?

In a relatively uneventful weekend save for a great second weekend for Zootopia, falling only 33% the highest per screen averages went to two films starring 60something women -- Helen Mirren in Eye in the Sky and Sally Field in Hello My Name is Doris. How about that? I mean, they're only at a handful of screens in NY and LA but perhaps they'll have decent futures.

What did you see this weekend?  

WIDE RELEASES
01 Zootopia $50 (cum. $142.6)
02 10 Cloverfield Lane $25.2  NEW 
03 Deadpool $10.8 (cum. $328) Reviewish
04 London Has Fallen $10.6  (cum. $38.8)
05 Whiskey Tango Foxtrot $4.6 (cum. $14.5) Review
06 The Perfect Match $4.1  NEW
07 The Young Messiah $3.4  NEW
08 The Brothers Grimsby $3.1 NEW
09 Gods of Egypt $2.5 (cum. $27.3) Review
10 Risen $2.2 (cum. $32.3)

LIMITED RELEASES
less than 800 screens excluding previously wide
01 The Lady in the Van $.5 (cum. $8) 363 screens Review
02 The Other Side of the Door $.5 (cum. $2.1) 585 screens
03 Embrace of the Serpent $.1 (cum. $.5) 75 screens Interview, Review
04 Where to Invade Next $.1 (cum. $3.2) 151 screens Review & 2nd Opinion 
05 The Mermaid $.1 (cum. $2.9) 82 screens
06 Eye in the Sky $.1 5 screens  NEW 
07 Knight of Cups $.09 (cum. $.1) 36 screens Reviewish
08 Hello, My Name is Doris $.08 4 screens  NEW Review
09 Son of Saul $.07 (cum. $1.6) 105 screens Interview, Review
10 45 Years $.06 (cum. $4.0) 70 screens